Hey everyone! What time is it? Haha. I'm happy to say that summer has officially started for me! Like I promised, here is chapter one to my new story. I hope all of you like it! I won't be updating maybe for two weeks... I want a lot of people to get a chance to read this first chapter, so I'm going to wait a little bit. Enjoy!
Pick Me Up
Chapter One
Gabriella had an inkling. There was a crisp smell in the air as the sky grew darker on this early Saturday morning, and even as she drove down the high way, she could tell that rain was coming. That was her inkling. Cars zipped and whirled past her while she pressed a button to close her sun roof so that if it did start to rain, she wouldn't be soaked.
She was on her way to her parents' house. In her opinion, it was in the middle of nowhere, somewhere in the center of Tennessee where the only thing you saw for a while was trees and mountain-like landscape.
If asked why she was going, she'd probably give a long worded excuse about being away for so long since she graduated from college, but would avoid reminding herself why she was really going. There was a family reunion at her parents' house and she was the furthest from being excited to go.
There was a reason for her unenthusiastic return home, but she wouldn't tell just anybody. It wasn't something she wanted the whole world to know about.
She quickly made a left hand turn, jumping off of the fast paced high way once she got to the exit she needed to get off at. Once she got further down the road, it turned into a dirt road, calling for a bumpy ride the rest of the way to her parent's house.
The radio crackled and she twisted and turned the knob of the volume to try to get it back to its steady rhythm, but there was no use in trying. She knew that once she was in this area, the luxury of a nice radio station coming in disappeared.
Just as she pressed down on the power button of her stereo to turn it off, a sheet of rain wafted over her car like it had been freed from the clouds above her after a long time being stuck.
"Boy, am I good or what?" Gabriella smirked to herself, turning on her windshield wipers as she looked at the golf ball sized raindrops.
She slowed, knowing that sooner or later, the road that was dry a few minutes ago would be turned into mud within the next couple of minutes. She passed a red barn with a baby blue house next to it, and looked on to see nothing else around it. That's how it was around here. No one lived close to each other around the farming areas, but she liked the space and deserted roads.
She hummed a song that went along with the rain and tapped her fingers on the steering wheel as she drove. She passed a steaming car that was stalled on the side of the road, and noticed that no one was inside or around it any longer.
A good ten minutes later, just as she was picking up her pace, tired of only going twenty-five, she saw a person walking along the road in a grey sweatshirt that was already soaked from the rain. He was walking slowly while trying to stay out of the muddy puddles around him and was carrying a black backpack on his back.
Without a second thought, Gabriella slowed, seeing the man more clearly as she rolled down her window. He was her age, around twenty six, and had shaggy dirty blond hair that was sticking to his forehead from the rain.
"Need a ride?" She called out to him, trying to be heard over the rain as he looked down at the ground. She honked her horn when he didn't seem to notice. He looked at her with a hint of wonder. "A ride. Do you need one?" She asked again.
"I'm going pretty far," he said to her as he stopped walking, staying a good distance away from her car.
"Aren't we all?" Gabriella said with a friendly smile.
"I have no way to repay you. I'm broke and so is my car…" He looked tired even through the rain and she only shrugged.
She was using him already. She needed a favor from him, just like he needed a favor from her, and if he needed a ride bad enough, he'd help her out as well.
"I think we can work out payment," she said to him. "Get in before you get struck by lightening!"
...
The door of her car opened quickly and a shower of rain followed the man who was recently just walking alone on the side of the road. He closed the door behind him and knocked his hood off of his head at the same time, brushing his hair back with his hand.
"Are you sure you can give me a ride? You don't know where I'm going yet," he said, looking at her while she rolled up her window.
She turned to look at him and sucked in a breath when she saw how blue his eyes were.
"Where are you going?" Gabriella asked him.
"Maine," He replied.
"Well, I'll drive you to Maine as long as you do something for me first," Gabriella said, biting her lip to see if he'd take the bait.
"Tell me what you need," he said, nodding surely, as if he was determined to get where he was going even if it meant bull riding in the middle of a pit of rattle snakes.
"For two weeks, I need you to pretend you're my boyfriend."
She felt pathetic even for asking it, but she was desperate to make her stay at her parents' house livable and doing that would require avoiding the boyfriend topic. If she had one, she wouldn't have to talk about not having one.
"Two weeks?" He asked, as if that was the only thing he was worried about. Like he was asked to fake being a girl's boyfriend all of the time.
"Yeah, fourteen days. I know that you probably think I'm psychotic, but my life would be so much easier if you just did this for me… I mean, I know you could probably call someone up to get you or just keep on walking… I don't know, I just thought I'd try…"
"That's fine, I'll do it."
"Really?" Gabriella asked in disbelief. "You've known me for a minute and a half and you'd pretend to be my boyfriend?"
"Yeah. You've known me for a minute and a half and you still asked me to be your boyfriend. It's obvious you're a good judge of character," he smiled at her, watching as her former look of surprise turned into one of shock, as if she had no idea he'd actually go for it.
"Okay," Gabriella nodded as she pulled away from the side of the road, starting to drive slowly again. "Wow, this could work."
"But you know, I should probably know your name if this is going to work," he said with another smile, seeing how she was trying to figure this all out at once while she drove.
"Oh! Right, sorry. I'm Gabriella Montez. I'd shake your hand, but I wouldn't want to take my hands off of the wheel," she laughed uncomfortably, looking over at him quickly.
"It's nice to meet you Gabriella. I'm Troy Bolton. I'm glad you're a safe driver," he replied, nodding.
She giggled, this time comfortably and nodded at him, seeing that he looked like he was excited for a challenge like this one. She sat less stressfully in her seat and went on with her drive, knowing that they had about twenty minutes to get acquainted.
"So, if you don't mind me asking, what's in Maine?" She asked him.
"I don't mind, only if you don't mind me asking why you need me to pretend I'm your boyfriend," he said slyly, smirking at her when she looked at him with her mouth open in uncertainty.
"Uh, well, I'm about to go to the Montez's annual family reunion, where not only does my whole family show up, but so does the entire town. For the past two years, I've had to sit at the kids table and explain to my mother, grandma, and all of my aunts and female cousins why I still don't have a boyfriend. It's definitely not the ideal situation."
"Why don't you? Have a boyfriend I mean," he asked her.
She rolled her neck out of habit, what she did when she was stalling to find the right answer. She glanced over at him, knowing that it took a generous person to help her out like this and he at least deserved to know what she was up to.
"My last boyfriend broke my heart when I was in my first year of college and he had no problem moving on from the relationship. It took me longer than expected, so I haven't dated since. Besides, I really, really want to make him as jealous as humanly possible," she smiled, glad to get her evil scheme off of her chest.
"Well, I'm honored that you've chosen me to help you with that," Troy replied.
"I did go through tons of potential candidates. It really was a tiring process," Gabriella joked, laughing at herself.
Troy smiled, changing positions in his seat, causing the leather to squeak underneath him because of his wet clothes.
"So, why Maine?" Gabriella asked.
"I met a girl a few months ago at my brother's wedding and since then I've fallen in love with her. I decided to find her in Maine and tell her how I feel," Troy explained.
"Ohh, how romantic," Gabriella smiled, her heart fluttering at the thought of a love so strong that it was bringing them together face to face. "You don't mind doing this though, right? I mean, since you're in a relationship."
"I don't know if we can call it a relationship yet, but yeah, I'm okay with it. It's just make-believe," Troy answered.
"You're right. We have nothing to be ashamed of," Gabriella said.
"Absolutely nothing," He agreed.
They looked at the road ahead of them, quieting down for the mean time as if they were both contemplating what they were actually doing. After a few more minutes and a tons more quick questions that would get them through the first meeting at least, they were already pulling up Gabriella's parents' driveway.
Troy looked over at Gabriella once they got out of the car, seeing her sigh as she looked at the large yellow house next to her. They jogged towards the front door, dodging rain puddles as they went.
"Ready?" Gabriella asked Troy with a nervous expression.
"Ready." Troy nodded, holding his hand out for her to take it. After all, they had to make a lovey-dovey impression right away.
Gabriella took it, surprised at how warm it was even after he'd been walking around in the rain for who knows how long. She reached her other hand out, ringing the door bell quickly and waiting for someone to answer it.
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Much love,
unknownbyhim22